Known appliances include, vertically, to the rear of the cooking surface, or else horizontally, above the cooking surface, radiant panels enabling the cooking plate to be heated and the food to be cooked. However, this type of construction is hardly ever used, since it does not enable good cooking uniformity to be obtained.
Other known appliances include a layer of lava stones which is arranged between the burners or the resistor, which are located at the bottom of a vessel, and the cooking grille. The lava stones make it possible for the temperature of the cooking grille to be made uniform and for part of the fats from cooking, which flow from the food through the cooking grille, to be retained.
However, this device does not make it possible for the fats from cooking to be prevented from falling onto the burners.
Fires and major releases of toxic substances, due to the pyrolysis of the fats, occur very frequently.
Other appliances have been designed so as to prevent the fats from falling directly onto the heating elements, and include metal sections which channel the fats and convey them away from the heating elements.
However, this type of appliance is complicated to manufacture and expensive since a metal section has to be located beneath each opening of the cooking plate in order to collect the fats. In addition, this complicated structure does not facilitate the cleaning of the appliance and of the cooking grille.
Such an appliance is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,253,834. Gas rails are arranged between each opening of the cooking grille, between two channels enabling the fats to be collected. The latter are therefore strongly heated when they flow from the cooking plate and when they remain in the metal channels.
Major releases of smoke and fires from the fats may frequently be observed.